The solution to our housing crisis isn’t shame. It’s what we’ve started here | Opinion

President Donald Trump’s federalized foray into local policing in Washington D.C. has drawn the attention it deserves. We are forewarned. But beyond its staged sound and fury, the administration is revealing how it intends to address our national housing and homelessness crisis.

The solution to our housing crisis is not blaming the unhoused for their plight. It’s not criminalizing our neighbors who are the most challenged and vulnerable. It’s not rounding them up to be institutionalized or shipped to the community next door.

Instead, the solution to the housing crisis is more housing. Charlotte has a 35,000-unit shortage of affordable housing. We know more affordable housing is needed at all levels; for working people and families, seniors, veterans, young adults aging out of foster care, LGBTQ youth and seniors and more.

Even if his reasons and prescriptions are all wrong, Trump is right to focus on homelessness. About 770,000 Americans experienced homelessness in 2024, an 18% increase over 2023 driven by rising rents, a shortage of affordable housing stock, wages that don’t keep pace with inflation and rising healthcare costs. That’s not a small number. But, as a nation of 342 million people with a gross domestic product of about $30 trillion, homelessness is of a scale we can still solve with the right, sustained, compassionate strategies.

Many who live on the streets or in shelters suffer from some combination of disability, mental health and/or substance abuse challenges and extreme poverty. Some can return to work. Some face challenges that keep them from working, or at least full-time work.

According to National Veterans Homeless Support: “Many homeless people do have jobs, but still can’t afford rent. Many more would probably welcome a job opportunity, but their current circumstances (no mailing address, no computer, no access to shower or clean clothes) make applying for a job tremendously difficult, if not impossible.”

For the most vulnerable homeless population, experience, research and hard data show that housing as a first step combined with social work and case management is the most effective solution. This kind of supportive housing has resulted in 80% of those housed remaining housed a year later, meaning fewer end up back on the streets. Supportive housing can reduce taxpayer-related costs for hospital and emergency room charges, arrests and other public services related to homelessness.

For these reasons, along with the fundamental call of our faith to love our neighbor, the congregation I serve at Caldwell Presbyterian Church (Charlotte) committed years ago to transform an on-campus building into supportive housing for people who have experienced chronic homelessness. We’re adding the final touches to construction now and look forward to welcoming our neighbors-to-be this fall. Our development partner is DreamKey Partners, and Roof Above will manage its operations.

It’s important to see the Trump administration’s current activities in Washington for what they are — a glimpse of what more to expect. Drawing on the Republican Project 2025 blueprint, the president issued an executive order on July 24 that would stop federal funding for what’s known as “housing first,” despite its widespread acceptance as a proven method of ending homelessness.

The order also encourages involuntary institutionalization of people who are unhoused, under a thin, fear-baiting veil of promoting public safety. The facts are that our unhoused neighbors are more likely to be victims of crime than anything else, especially those who identify as LGBTQ.

The order also would require homelessness service providers with federal funding to collect personal, health-related information about their clients to be shared with law enforcement.

Blaming, shaming and institutionalizing those who are unhoused for their predicament, rather than helping them with proven approaches, dehumanizes them and disserves the taxpayer. It is a cruel and cowardly way out, however convenient and comfortable it may be for some.

Here in Charlotte, dozens of community leaders and stakeholders have contributed to a multi-year approach called “A Home For All.” It offers a comprehensive approach to prevent homelessness and address it effectively when it occurs. The plan intends to create a community “where homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring and every person has access to permanent, affordable housing and the resources to sustain it.” Its implementation is in the early stages and will require a community-wide effort. It’s a new and promising approach but needs partners across the federal, state and local levels, joined by the private, philanthropic sectors and yes, even communities of faith with land, space and help to offer.

Our housing and homelessness services agencies face mounting pressure from Washington. We can coldly, unjustly criminalize our unhoused neighbors or show compassion utilizing cost-effective and proven strategies. The choice is ours, unless or until that choice is taken away.

Rev. Dr. John Cleghorn is pastor of Caldwell Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. His most recent book focuses on how communities of faith nationwide are providing land, buildings and partnership for affordable housing.